It is often necessary to mark and transfer an angle when doing woodworking and similar processes. The conventional tool for transferring an angle is a sliding bevel. While this tool is quite useful in transferring an angle from one work piece to another, problems are often encountered when trying to transfer an angle from a work piece to a typical woodworking power tool such as a table saw, where angles are set by reference to scales graduated in degrees. Often there is not enough registration space on the saw or other tool to allow a sliding bevel to be used accurately. It is also often necessary to lay out a specific angle for items such as dovetail joints. A typical sliding bevel is useful for this process; however, sliding bevels rarely have angular graduations and those that do make it difficult to accurately set angles by reference to the graduations.
Homemade and commercially available angle setting reference tools such as one marketed under the name “Bevel Boss” have long been available, but these tools are relatively large, can be somewhat difficult to use, and can rarely be used successfully to directly establish or mark an angle on a work piece.
Accordingly, there is a need for a compact tool capable of establishing a wide range of angles with significant accuracy and that can be used for directly transferring an angle to or establishing an angle on a work piece.